Middleware Consulting International

ARMONK, N.Y., Oct. 29, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — IBM (NYSE: IBM) announced today that it is bringing the Apptio portfolio of enterprise agile planning (EAP), IT financial management, and cloud FinOps solutions to Microsoft Azure. In addition, IBM announced their global expansion of IBM Software availability on the Azure Marketplace making it easier for customers to buy software directly on the marketplace while using their Microsoft Azure Consumption Commitment.

As IT leaders grapple with growing technology budgets and managing new generative AI-fueled compute needs, they are facing increasing pressure to prove the value of their investments.

Now available on the Azure Marketplace, IBM Targetprocess EAP software helps portfolio managers and finance teams plan and manage budgets and align their workforces across various technology priorities, while applying technology business management (TBM) industry best practices. As a native software-as-a-service solution from IBM’s acquisition of Apptio, Targetprocess integrates with Azure DevOps to provide simplified management, increased efficiencies and potential cost savings by allowing clients to use Microsoft Azure Consumption Commitments.

As a leader in IDC’s MarketScape for Worldwide Value Stream Management and Agile Project and Portfolio Management and Gartner’s Enterprise Agile Planning Magic Quadrant, IBM Targetprocess enhances Azure DevOps’ capabilities, providing end-to-end visibility from the team level up. It also supports various Agile frameworks, including SAFe, and offers flexibility to align with each organization’s business practices – providing a single source of truth for tech spend and labor allocation.

IBM Expands Software Availability on the Azure Marketplace
IBM is also expanding the global availability of its software portfolio to 14 additional countries on the Azure Marketplace. IBM Software offerings will be available to clients in countries including Australia, Canada, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, India, Italy, Netherlands, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

The Azure marketplace is a preferred choice for enterprise IT purchases, and IBM offerings on the Azure Marketplace enable customers to purchase software how they want to, while drawing down on their Microsoft Azure Consumption Commitment investments. This facilitates access to IBM technologies including Aspera on Cloud SaaS, Netezza SaaS, SingleStoreDB SaaS, Streamsets, IBM Planning Analytics SaaS, and webMethods Integration Suite. Additionally, watsonx.ai, watsonx.data and watsonx.governance are available as a customer managed service on the Azure Marketplace.

“Thousands of clients are already using the Apptio portfolio to optimize their IT investments, but many of our joint customers need the flexibility to use it on the Microsoft DevOps platform,” said Nick Otto, Head of Global Strategic Partnerships, IBM. “Bringing IBM Targetprocess to the Microsoft Azure Marketplace, along with expanded availability of other IBM Software around the world, enables us to support clients on their digital transformation journey with the ease and simplicity of purchasing on the marketplace.”

“Today’s announcement illustrates how IBM and Microsoft are empowering customers to efficiently use IT resources and adapt to evolving tech needs, especially with the rise of cloud-based AI innovation,” said Dinis Couto, GM, GSI Commercial Partners at Microsoft. “Our collaboration will enhance decision-making, increase productivity and enhance IT management for organizations of all sizes.”

Microsoft has also agreed to adopt Apptio’s capabilities in parts of their own organization.

IBM’s collaboration with Microsoft is grounded in a shared vision for hybrid, multi-cloud business transformation, satisfying customer needs by running the right workloads in the right places. We share a heritage and proven track record of delivering industry first innovations, and IBM is one of Microsoft’s technology and Consulting partners that provide expertise to support many of Microsoft’s product areas.

IBM also brings nearly 50 IBM Consulting offerings on the Azure Marketplace. These offerings are available globally and focused on helping clients drive business transformation with hybrid cloud, generative AI, data and application modernization, security services, and tailored industry-specific solutions including IBM Consulting Azure OpenAI, IBM Consulting Connect 360, IBM Consulting Banking Operations GenAI Co-Pilot and IBM Security Strategy Services for Microsoft Azure. IBM Consulting also brings over 50,000 Microsoft certifications and a dedicated team of experts trained in the latest Microsoft technologies to helping clients get the most out of them.

IBM Targetprocess is the first Apptio product on the Microsoft Azure Marketplace. IBM also intends to make IBM Apptio Costing and Planning available in the marketplace in Q4 2024. IBM Cloudability is currently under consideration.

ARMONK, N.Y., Oct. 16, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — New research by IBM’s (NYSE: IBM) Institute for Business Value identifies a disconnect between how insurers and their customers prioritize the use of generative AI, with industry executives focusing on experience while their clients are seeking personalized risk products and insights.

Findings from a survey of 1,000 insurance c-suite executives in 23 countries and 4,700 insurance customers in nine countries are outlined in Generative AI in the Insurance Industry: You Can’t Win if You Don’t Play.

“The insurance industry has made headway in generative AI with customer experience and chatbot enhancements, but insurers must focus on adopting comprehensive governance frameworks that ensure transparency, privacy, and explainability to ensure they are building trusted AI assistants and reliable processes,” said Mark McLaughlin, Director of Global Insurance with IBM Technology. “There are also significant opportunities in connecting customers to the right products. Leveraging AI across the enterprise will be critical to improve both customer risk experiences and to implement the underlying IT tools that power those experiences.”

Key Takeaways 

• Insurance CEOs surveyed were almost evenly divided on whether they see generative as more of a risk (49%) versus an opportunity (51%)
• 77% of industry leaders who responded acknowledge that generative AI is necessary to keep pace with competitors
• Investments in gen AI are expected to surge by over 300% from 2023 to 2025 as organizations move from pilots in one or two areas to implementations in multiple functions across business lines
• Only 29% of insurance customers queried said they are comfortable with gen AI virtual agents providing service, with only 26% saying they trust in the reliability and accuracy of advice given by generative AI
• Organizations choosing less-centralized operating models to develop gen AI capabilities can improve business outcomes by up to 14%

Recommendations

• Build more tailored products with flexibility, advice, and linkage to risk data
• Match those products intelligently to customers’ needs
• Address trust issues with strongly ethical, governed AI
• Also use AI to connect the underlying risk data and address long-standing insurer and financial service provider technical debt
• Deploy – and govern – AI across the enterprise with local knowledge experts empowered to connect AI to the insurance value chain

Download the full report here: www.ibm.com/thought-leadership/institute-business-value/en-us/report/insurance-generative-ai

IBM is a leading provider of enterprise AI, hybrid cloud architecture, security and ESG insights to the global financial services sector. Its deep industry expertise, extensive portfolio of services and solutions, and its robust ecosystem of fintech partners, empower collaboration, innovation, and creation with clients. As a trusted partner to banks, insurers, capital markets and payments providers, IBM guides financial institutions on all stages of their digital transformation journeys through IBM Consulting and delivers the proven infrastructure, software, and services they need through IBM Technology. For more information, visit https://www.ibm.com/industries/insurance.

Methodology

The IBM Institute for Business Value (IBM IBV), in cooperation with Oxford Economics, surveyed 1,000 C-level insurance executives in 23 countries in Q3 2024. 60% of the sample represented pure insurers, 35% bancassurers, and 5% insurance captives of non-financial services and insurance industry organizations selling to the wider insurance market. Participants were asked a range of questions in various formats (multiple choice numerical and Likert scale) about their organization’s expectations, results, concerns, and barriers for the use of generative AI in various parts of the organization, as well as relevant technological and business KPIs that allowed a quantitative assessment of the efficacy of these uses.

In the same timeframe, the IBM IBV also surveyed 4,700 insurance customers in nine countries, with a minimum of 900 respondents in each country: Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, UK, and US. Customers were asked a mirror of some of the questions the above executives received on gen AI benefits and concerns, allowing IBM IBV to gauge agreements and gaps in executive and customer perceptions.

The IBM Institute for Business Value, IBM’s thought leadership think tank, combines global research and performance data with expertise from industry thinkers and leading academics to deliver insights that make business leaders smarter. For more world-class thought leadership, visit www.ibm.com/ibv.

First introduced late last year, IBM Heron is the company’s most performant quantum chip yet, and advances the company’s mission of bringing useful quantum computing to the world by enabling users to increase the complexity of algorithms they are exploring on real quantum hardware.

When the IBM Heron-based system is made available at the IBM Quantum Data Center in Europe, it will be the third IBM Heron installed across IBM’s fleet of quantum systems that can be accessed by the company’s global quantum network of more than 250 enterprises, universities, research institutions, and organizations. IBM Heron offers up to a 16-fold increase in performance and 25-fold increase in speed over previous IBM quantum computers as they were measured two years ago.

When it is deployed alongside the now-available utility-scale systems installed in the new IBM Quantum Data Center, the IBM Heron-based system will expand the more than a dozen quantum computers IBM currently offers through the cloud – the largest fleet of its kind in the world.

The opening of the new quantum data center was celebrated at a ribbon-cutting event attended by senior government officials, including German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Dr. Nicole Hoffmeister-Kraut, Minister for Economic Affairs, Labour, and Tourism, State of Baden-Württemberg. IBM CEO and Chairman Arvind Krishna gave remarks alongside Chancellor Scholz, and the Chancellor also spoke at length with IBM leaders including Dario Gil, IBM Senior Vice President and Director of Research; Ana Paula Assis, General Manager of IBM EMEA; Jay Gambetta, Vice President of IBM Quantum; and IBM Quantum’s German-based team about the importance of quantum computing’s adoption and growth in the region.

Additionally, the landmark moment was attended by several senior leaders of European-based global enterprises, including Crédit Mutuel, Bosch, E.ON, Volkswagen Group, and others, as well as research institutions such as Ikerbasque in Spain and Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft. These organizations are among the more than 80 European-based organizations within the IBM Quantum Network, many of which have the opportunity to access the systems within the IBM Quantum Data Center in Europe to search for the algorithms and applications of quantum computing that could solve some of the most complex challenges across their industries.

“The opening of the IBM Quantum Data Center in Ehningen is good news for Germany. It will serve as a location for innovation and business growth, and is an expression of investors’ confidence in the German market. IBM enriches the German quantum computing landscape with this new data center. The German government is providing targeted support for the development of quantum technologies. It is thereby driving forward the development of competencies and capacities in quantum computing in order to promote a robust ecosystem around the development of quantum computers,” said Olaf Scholz, Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany.

“The opening of our first IBM Quantum Data Center in Europe marks a pivotal moment for the region’s technological development, demonstrates our commitment to Europe, and underscores the key role of collaboration with industry, academia and policymakers for a pan-European quantum ecosystem. This state-of-the-art facility will foster innovation around quantum computing, creating new opportunities for talent attraction and ensuring that Europe remains at the forefront of global technological advancements,” said Ana Paula Assis, General Manager and Chairman of IBM Europe, Middle East and Africa.

“Our collaboration with IBM for the ‘scaling’ phase of quantum computing is progressing according to plan. We are working to develop concrete applications that improve the experience of our customer and members, and create value for the Group’s businesses,” said Frantz Rublé, President of Euro-Information and Deputy Chief Executive Officer of Crédit Mutuel Alliance Fédérale. “The availability of this quantum data center on European soil addresses our constraints in terms of processing proximity and Crédit Mutuel’s approach to regulatory compliance. And it also means we can look forward to the next stages of the quantum project with confidence at Crédit Mutuel, CIC and then at Targobank.”

“We believe that enabling our scientists and engineers to tackle demanding problems in materials sciences, high-energy physics, and biosciences through quantum computing, and providing state-of-the-art quantum computing access will be key to make disruptive progress in all those disciplines,” said Javier Aizpurua, Ikerbasque professor, Donostia International Physics Center (DIPC) and director of BasQ. “A combined use of quantum computing, AI, and data science, if generalized, will give rise to a scenario of new possibilities not only in fundamental research but also in industrial innovation.”

“Bosch aims to drive innovation in the field of material simulation using quantum computing. In partnership with IBM Quantum, our team is creating scalable algorithms that aim to revolutionize product development. This includes the creation of new materials for sustainable, carbon-free mobility and the reduction of rare earth elements,” said Dr. Thomas Kropf, President of Corporate Sector Research and Advance Engineering, Robert Bosch GmbH. “The European IBM Quantum Data Center allows us to run quantum calculations in close proximity, supporting Bosch’s approach to compliance with European data protection regulations. This accelerates our research and development efforts and bolsters the European quantum ecosystem, paving the way for advancements in mobility, healthcare, and sustainable technologies.”

“E.ON is investigating quantum computing to tackle energy transition challenges, including large-scale optimization, complex scenario modeling, and quantum machine learning. IBM’s first European Quantum Data Center’s location is also helpful for EU/German public funding opportunities, which may be available for local access to quantum computational resources and on-site expertise. This milestone underscores Europe’s and Germany’s leadership in quantum computing and marks a significant advancement in propelling enterprises into the quantum era,” said Chris d’Arcy, Managing Director, E.ON Digital Technology GmbH and Chief Data and AI Officer.

“Quantum computing can be the next big thing to solve problems in material science, traffic optimization, or deep learning, that may change the world. IBM’s Quantum Data Center in Europe provides access to their unique quantum infrastructure and thus, represents an indispensable another piece of the bridge between quantum computers and industrial application at scale. We are proud to be part of that journey to utilize quantum computing for the transformation into future sustainable and smart mobility,” said Dr. Nikolai Ardey, Executive Director, Volkswagen Group Innovation.

“Algorithmiq is pioneering the integration of quantum computing, artificial intelligence (AI), and network science to solve the world’s most complex problems in chemistry, healthcare and life sciences. To accomplish this, we need algorithms and scale. This is why we’ve partnered with IBM on both counts: our groundbreaking error mitigation algorithm, TEM, available through the Qiskit Functions Catalog, is proven to be optimal in extending the scale and accuracy of quantum simulations. And now, with more IBM quantum systems available in Europe, we’re excited to further strengthen our ties in Europe and partner with an even larger ecosystem of industries, organizations, developers, and scientists to demonstrate TEM’s utility — and progress toward quantum advantage,” said Sabrina Maniscalco, CEO of Algorithmiq.

IBM recently published evidence that Qiskit is the world’s leading and most performant quantum software. Together with access to IBM’s advanced quantum hardware, IBM’s ecosystem of users across Europe and globally can access tools and systems that can help them to more easily advance the discovery of algorithms that could open the doorway to useful quantum computing and reach quantum advantage: the point at which a quantum computer can solve a practical problem better than any classical method.

The IBM Quantum Data Center in Europe can be accessed through the IBM Quantum Platform, continuing IBM’s mission to enable the development of quantum computing use cases and to support clients as they press forward with algorithm discovery in the era of quantum utility, and towards quantum advantage.